Auto Theft First Response
''"Three police officers, Glendal, Ardal and Edwin must collaborate to unearth the truth about the gang named the Zeros." - ''Synopsis for core plot. "''The three officers, Glendal, Ardal and Edwin return to fullfill a task for a god like being, named Dr Ponty" - ''Synopsis for additional plot. Auto Theft First Response is the second Auto Theft spin off. It takes place in December 2015 after the Rivalry Ark, and one month before the Inspector Ark. It is another spin off game of the original Auto Theft, much like Auto Theft Agency Wars. The three protagonists are Edwin, a hispanic LSPD officer, Glendal, a returning character from the Inspector Ark and undercover cop secretly a part of the Ballas, and Ardal, a member of the SWAT. Players can arrest NPCs and assist police in fighting crime. This spinoff is a prequel to the Inspector Ark DLC as it focuses on the Zeros gang. The mission Station Defence is the end of the First Response story, but the additional story is the climax of the entire Jimmy Era of games for Auto Theft, so both are considered as endings. First Response started September 1st 2016 and lasted until December 27th 2016, far exceeding the span of Agency Wars. Despite this, First Response has a total of only 20 missions while Agency Wars has a total of 38. Gameplay As well as being able to arrest citizens and fight crimes, the player can freely switch between the three characters at any given moment after the first mission, and can never obtain a wanted level. Glendal will not be attacked by citizens of Grove Street if he shoots there, however, the ballas rottwillers still do. Edwin and Ardal will however be attacked by members of grove street if any action is caused. At the police station, the player can recruit Jazzy, or another playable character to accompany them on freeroam. Glendal is also able to recruit Sweet from the Ballas. Also at the police station, the player can interact with other officers and engage in conversation. The player can stop citizens in the street and Ask for ID, give citations or warnings, and can call in backup from local forces or a swat team. Glendal genuinely likes Edwin, but dislikes Ardal, who dislikes him in return. Ardal hates Glendal even more after mission 5, but shows concern when he finds out Glendal has been kidnapped. When Ardal rescues Glendal, they begin to show a strong friendship. Despite being law enforcers, players can still perform illegal activities like car jacking, store theft and so on, without any form of punishment and can still never obtain a wanted level. The only way to obtain a wanted level is by playing the mission Station Defence or using mods. Oversights *If the player is playing as Ardal or Edwin, and recruits Glendal at the station to accompany him, and then causes a shootout at Grove street, Glendal will still participate, with grove street members fighting him back. *If Glendal recruits Sweet and other protagonists to accompany him, they will not arise any suspiscion. Missions Missions generally in the rotation order of Edwin, Ardal then Glendal for the Core Missions, except towards the end. The order for the additional missions is Ardal Edwin and Glendal. Core Missions #The Foundry - Edwin 1/9/16 #Blimp scene - Ardal 12/9/16 #Gang investigation - Glendal 10/10/16 #Yan - Edwin 10/10/16 #Mission Row - Ardal 10/10/16 #Capolivaro - Glendal 10/10/16 #Further Evidence - Edwin 10/10/16 #Revelation - Ardal 28/10/16 #Saving Glendal - Glendal/Ardal 7/11/16 #Station Defence - Ardal 8/11/16 Additional Missions #Ponty - Ardal 1/12/16 #Things are about to change - Edwin 3/12/16 #Things have changed - Glendal 8/12/16 #"Murder" at the Power Station - Ardal 19/12/16 #Assault on Michael - Edwin 20/12/16 #Scoping the Lab - Glendal 22/12/16 #Heist at the Construction Site - Ardal 23/12/16 #Moon Gravity - Edwin 25/12/16 #Clear the Cargo - Glendal 26/12/16 #Ponty's End Game (Kill Michael) - All Characters - 27/12/16 PDOS Attack On September 15th 2016, the Auto theft Servers came under attack from a Permanent Denial of Service attack, preventing online play and the release of new episodes. BCGGames revealed on October 9th that the servers would be back online at 00:00 AM GMT on October 10th, and five new episodes of First Response were also released the same day. Plot Core Plot Sent to investigate suspiscious behaviour at a foundry in south Los Santos, Ardal, a swat member and Edwin, an LSPD rookie, clear out a members of a hispanic gang and reach a room housing Lester Crest, who has a large metalic tube attacthed to his head. In agony, Lester screams in pain before being deemed on drugs by the officers and detained. Lester claims to be a man named Kirk Morrison, who has been held captive for two weeks and has just had his body switched with the real Lester. Edwin and Ardal takes him to the police station and arrest him in the small jail beneath the building. Hours later, Ardal assists Edwin in securing a blimp carrying drugs from the same gang back to the airport. Pursued by the gang, the officers track them down and end them. When Glendal arrives on duty, he is sent by Ardal to talk to Lester in his cell, forcing him to reveal details on the hispanic gang. Lester/Kirk informs Glendal that the nescessary information resides on a plane heading for the Airport, prompting Glendal to pursue it. Glendal locates the plane landing on the runway, and steals it from the pilot before taking it to the military base. The Military base leader promises to conduct a search in the plane to look for evidence toward the hispanic gang. Edwin then crosses paths with a homeless man offering him drugs, much to Edwin's displeasure, who arrests him. As they head for the police station, the duo are ambushed by the hispanic gang. The homeless man, named Yan, aids Edwin in holding them off. An injured gang member confirms Yan's statement that he has been drugged by them. With this revelation, Yan is released by Edwin. Following the inspection of the plane delivered to the military base, the military base leader summons Ardal to see the discovered files for himself, learning of a planned attack on the police force by the hispanic gang, and the use of advanced technology allowing Ardal to conclude the reality of the Kirk/Lester body switch. The military base leader tells Ardal that the hispanic gang are known as the Zeros and their leader is Brad Capolivaro. The zeros are a powerful gang and the leader possesses a secret identity, allowing him to fund weapons and machinery for the gang. In search of help, Ardal calls Edwin, only to discover he is suspended from the force. Ardal resorts to consulting to Glendal for assistance, and the two travel to the Zeros foundry. Whilst stealthily traversing through the facility, the two discover two guards up some stairs. With the use of supressed weapons, Ardal instructs Glendal to kill one guard, while he kills the other. Ardal is successful, but Glendal only wounds his (presumably purposely in an attempt to get Ardal killed), and in retalitation, the wounded zero guard blasts the barrell next to Ardal, forcing him off the balcony and alerting the zeros of their presense, thus breaking out a large battle. Though Ardal and Glendal survive, Brad and the machinery are all evacuated before the duo could intercept, and they decide to return to the station. Now off duty, Glendal and Sweet set out to discover Brad Capolivaro's secret identity, and search the police database to find the home of Tony Capollivaro. The duo breach his home and search his laptop, when a silhoutted figure grabs Sweet and injects him silently, before smashing Glendal across his face with a fire extinguisher, leaving the two without memory of anything that just occured. Edwin, now back on duty, meets with Yan and Kirk Morrison to travel to the foundry in hopes of jogging their memories on Brad. However, before they arrive, Edwin is called by the police force to stop a criminal resisting arrest. Edwin pursues the car through the state before finally killing the two inside. He discovers the two are part of the zeros, one of whom Kirk recognizes. Kirk gives Edwin a picture of his former body, and collects pieces of paper from the dead zero member which he hands to Ardal. Ardal examines the paper to see a picture of the military base, believing the zeros are planning to attack it and alerts the military leader. The other piece is from Brad asking the zero member to come to the factory at a certain time as he has kidnapped Glendal, alerting Ardal of Glendal's whereabouts, and sets out to rescue him. Glendal is held hostage at the foundry and tortured by a zero member, who is just about to kill him via injection, only for Ardal to breach the building, kill him and save Glendal. Ardal then apologizes and offers his friendship to Glendal, which he accepts, but Glendal explains to Sweet (who escaped whereever he was held hostage), that in spite of his newly formed family-like friendships with Edwin and Ardal, he will remains loyal to the Ballas and prioritize them. Later, Glendal is callled upon by Ardal to help with the ongoing Zero ambush on the police station. At the police station, Kirk Morrison, having adjusted to Lester's body and with a jogged memory, reveals Brad drives a Red Zentorno around the city, to which Yan points out, prompting Ardal to pursue it, whilst Glendal, Edwin and other LSPD members fend off the station. During a hefty chase, the county sheriff orders Ardal to stop his pursuit, which he refuses. The sheriff sets the local police forces on Ardal (giving the player a 4 star wanted level, the only time one can be claimed in the game). Eventually, Ardal damages Brad's car, forcing him to retreat on foot, but to no avail. Ardal wounds Brad and unmasks him, discovering he is the military base leader. As Brad slowly but surely meets his demise, Ardal is cornered off by the police, and out of options, surrenders. Hours later, the zeros foundry is bombed, and with Brad dead, the gang lose funding thus crippling the gang in terms of members and their technology. The remnants of the gang are led by Tony Capolivaro, who puts Fiesta Bigmot as his second in command. At the police station, the sheriff, despite the fact Ardal stopped the Zeros' master plan, expells him from the force and evicts him from the state as a result of disobeying a direct order. While leaving San Andreas, Ardal says his final goodbyes to Edwin and Glendal through his phone, where Glendal, now with trust in Ardal, almost reveals his secret, but doesn't due to time constraints. Glendal also contacts Edwin, and the two reconcile. Additional Plot Michael Ramsbottom's travels throughout time at will result in paradoxes and the gradual destruction of time and space. Dr Ponty, introduces himself to the players as an omnipotent being who has watched over earth since the beginning of time, and has allowed free will to do it's thing, but has found himself forced to step in after the reformation of the timeline at the hands of Michael Ramsbottom. Michael Ramsbottom saved his father from death and took him back in time to the safe haven, a heaven-like dimension that existed thousands of years ago before Ponty sealed it off. However, Ponty sealing it off didn't prevent Michael from travelling back in time to the point it existed. Ponty also reveals Michael has his powers due to a mistake at his own hand. Ponty tracks down Michael, who has teleported to December 2015, a few weeks before Edwin and Ardal track down Kirk Morrison at the Zero's foundry. Ardal pursues bank robbers who breached the sandy shores fleeca bank, but accidentally shoots down a chopper carrying the money, plunging its remains into the ocean. Hours later, Edwin goes to the desert to smoke in private, giving Ponty the perfect oppurtunity to step in. He tests his powers, which are unusable on Michael, on Edwin by levitating him, freezing him and finally teleporting him to the ocean. In shock, Edwin pulls himself up on a large boulder where Ponty creates an illusion of himself to Edwin, and informs Edwin of his plan simply by touching him on the forehead. Ponty then does the same for Glendal, and informs him of all down by the Power Plant. Ponty then finally lures Ardal to the power plant and reveals himself. The three then gather together and go to cypress flats to assualt Michael's car. Edwin snipes out his tire, sending his car out of control across the road, but before Edwin can kill him, Michael runs away, and several cars with armed civilians pull up and attack the three cops. After fending off the horde and arresting the sole survivor, the three are told by Ponty that Michael gathered the civilians from different time periods and hired them to guard him in San Andreas. The sole survivor of the attack, taken prisoner, is interrogated by Edwin and Ardal, who reveals Michael has taken shelter along with several guards at Humane Labs. Ponty sends Glendal to the lab, who sneaks him in by using his powers to pull him through solid objects, and inside the building. Glendal accesses a computer system and listens to voice recordings sent through the lab recently, where he discovers Michael's weakness is excessive electricity shocks. With his weakness learned by Ponty, he sends Glendal out the lab and onto a nearby beach. Glendal asks Ponty to teleport him elsewhere, but Ponty ignores him, leaving him stranded. Ardal, Glendal and Edwin meet up at the police station, where Ponty contacts them again and tells Ardal he must recover an electronical artifact at the heavily guarded construction building downtown. Ardal travels to the building, clearing waves of the army hired by Michael, before climbing to the roof and collecting the artifact, which Ponty explains can be used to drain Michael's powers. Ponty sends Ardal and Glendal to Humane Labs in order to force Michael out of there and flee. When he does, he speeds down the highway, where Edwin is waiting, and pursues him toward the airport. Ponty reveals he is now able to control the gravitational force of earth, and proceeds to weaken it to a moon-like level after Michael and Edwin speed off a ramp. Edwin and Michael float across the ocean, where Edwin throws the electronical artifact at Michael, that ultimately electrocutes him as soon as gravity returns to normal, plunging the two into the ocean. The electrocuting destroys Michael's power, but he is able to flee from Edwin in car, leaving the mission unsuccessful. Ponty then goes back to planning. Ponty sends Glendal to a cargo ship at the port of LS, to clear out more of Michael's reinforcements, beofre initiating his endgame. Ardal clears all reinforcements at Humane Labs, accesses the computer system to fry Michael's comm links, and finally swims out of the cooling tunnel. Glendal clears Mckenzie airfield and destroys Michael's plane, and Edwin tracks him in the city and pursues him up to the airfield, where sticky bombs destroy his bike and Edwin takes the final shot. With the mission finally accomplished, Ponty erases everyone's memory of his existence, Michael and the entire mission. Weeks later, the original timeline plot of First Response occurs. The End. Trivia *Edwin is the only protagonist of the three to have never had a wanted level. Ardal obtains one in the final core mission, Station Defence, and Glendal obtains one in the Inspector Ark. **Also, after the two wanted incidents on Ardal and Glendal, they are no longer part of the police force: Ardal is deported by the county sheriff and Glendal returns to Grove Street after he kills several cops. **In Station Defence, Ardal is also able to shoot and kill the cops in pursuit of him, despite having no intentions of betraying the force, which doesn't make much sense. Glendal on the other hand, shoots the cops because his position in the police force is a spy for the Ballas. *Ardal is playable in a total of 9 missions, as opposed to Glendal and Edwin, who are only playable in 7. *The Core missions were originally intended to go beyond Station Defence and would even end up overlapping the Inspector Ark, with players able to replay missions from the DLC in Glendal's point of view. The final Glendal mission would be him going to the meeting at the Fort Zancudo Radio Tower with James Vincent and Tony Capolivaro, where Glendal met his demise. This was cut from the final version as First Response Core serves as a prequel to the Inspector Ark and isn't supposed to overlap it. *Ardal is the last surviving member of the three First Response protagonists. In the Inspector Ark in January 2016, Glendal is shot in the head by Tony Capolivaro. In the Auto Theft: Comic in January 2017, Edwin is shot in the heart by an unnamed FIB agent. **Both Glendal and Edwin die in the month of January, in the years 2016 and 2017 respectively.